Addressing Cyber Security Accessibility: A Qualitative Study

This short paper highlights the experience of victims of social engineering attacks and their accessibility to cybersecurity mechanisms. Current research has mainly focused on technical and digital literacy in curbing cyber-attacks which leaves out users with little or no technical ability in recognizing cyber-attacks. The experiences of 17 victims of social engineering attacks are sought using semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the interview data was done using grounded theory, and two main categories relevant to social engineering methods and accessible cybersecurity mechanisms were identified. Finally, this paper presents important recommendations on cybersecurity mechanisms that are accessible to users with little or no digital literacy.